The State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament) earlier initiated a probe over the fact that the peninsula’s territorial ownership was incorrectly indicated on Google maps. In response, Google said it had rectified the mistake over the erroneous display of Crimea on its maps for some users in Russia.

"Of course, it does matter for the Kremlin [how Crimea is indicated on maps]. Crimea is one of Russia’s regions," Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed, when fielding questions from reporters.

He noted that the company, which made that mistake, was a foreign one.

"However, we certainly expect Crimea’s [territorial] ownership to be indicated correctly from a geographical standpoint," the Kremlin spokesman added.